Tiki-tastic New Concept Art for Ron Clements and John Musker's Moana

Disney have often been one for keeping their upcoming slate under wraps, but that carefully constructed veil is slowly - and largely without Disney's consent - being lifted. We've got lots of new plot and character details for Big Hero 6, ditto for Nathan Greno's Giants, and now a stunning new piece of concept art and some plot details for Ron Clements and John Musker's exciting next film!

Brand New Plot and Character Details For Disney's Big Hero 6

Those ever more popular Rotoscopers guys have teamed up with the always reliable Bleeding Cool to bring us all exclusive, brand new details about the characters and plot of Disney's hotly anticipated 2014 release, Big Hero 6!

Directed by Winnie the Pooh's Don Hall, Big Hero 6 will be Walt Disney Animation Studios' 54th animated feature film, and an adaptation of the lesser-known Marvel comic of the same name. The details come in video form, so check out Morgan Stradling (who wrote a great guest piece for us recently) giving you the lowdown below. Apparently it's spoiler free!

New Sky Broadband Ad Advertises Toy Story of Terror

This rather shameless new ad for Sky Fibre Broadband also sorta serves as our first promo for Pixar's Halloween special, Toy Story of Terror. No word on when the special (which airs in America on ABC on 16th October) will show in the UK yet, but I'd imagine it'll be before or on Halloween, and it will show on Sky Movies | Disney.

Be sure to check out the new poster we got earlier in the week too.

UPDATE - 07/09/2013, 21:29 (GMT): Some readers said they couldn't view the video from their country, so we've uploaded it to our channel; you should be able to check it out now.

Via Bleeding Cool

New Details on the Plot and Characters of Disney's Giants

Last month we heard a lot of exciting details about Walt Disney Animation Studios' upcoming slate. Then at D23 a couple of weeks ago, that was all seemingly confirmed with the official announcement of the first film we'd heard about, Zootopia. Now we've just heard substantially more about Disney's next film after that, the Nathan Greno-directed Giants, via Bleeding Cool.

Disney Apparently Working on Rumpelstiltskin Adaption, The Name Game

Disney's upcoming slate is more heavily shrouded in secrecy than Pixar's at the moment. Frozen, their first fairy tale film since 2010's Tangled, hits cinemas this winter; after that, Disney are set to release Marvel-adaptation Big Hero 6 in 2014. Beyond that, there's the long dormant King of the Elves, and we heard whispers of a possible Mickey Mouse/Roger Rabbit team-up last month (rumours, that have since been seemingly shot down).

Disney's Big Hero 6 Adaptation Listed for November 2014 Release

2014 is gearing up to be a really good year for animation: Pixar's The Good Dinosaur, Laika's The Boxtrolls, possibly Henry Selick's The Shadow King, and now another exciting prospect from Disney. A while back we heard that Disney were working on an animated adaptation of one of Marvel's lesser known properties, the super-team Big Hero 6. Now it's official.

Today's reveal, courtesy of Bleeding Cool, backs up what we heard in June of last year: the film is being directed by Don Hall (Winnie the Pooh) and is due in 2014. The release date revelation comes via RentrakSpain, a reliable site, who are listing Big Hero 6 for a 21st November, 2014 release in Spain - which tallies up with Disney's usual animated release schedule. UPDATED - 20:25 (GMT), 24/02/2013: The US release will fall, presumably, on 7th November - we heard in October that Disney had slotted an unnamed animated picture for release on that date. Hopefully the UK release won't be in 2015.

Still no official word from Disney, but it seems to be a pretty sure thing at this point - expect to hear something at Disney's D23 event this summer. Until then, it's a really exciting concept!

Thanks to Benjamin Boekelaar for the tip off.

UPDATED: Possible Cast for The Good Dinosaur Emerges

On New Year's Day when we got some great new concept art from Pixar's upcoming features, I was rounding off the post as usual - directors, producers, release dates, etc. - when, while checking the UK release date of The Good Dinosaur on FilmDates.co.uk (a website Disney's UK PR team themselves advise us bloggers to use for reference), I noticed something odd: it lists a voice cast for the film. I assumed this was a mistake of some sort, as it seems too early to be hearing about the film's voice cast (particularly in such a low-key manner); but Bleeding Cool posted the story today, so I thought it worth mentioning.

FilmDates lists the cast as being "Lil' Wayne, Joan Rivers, John Ratzenberger, Dee Bradley Baker, Tom Kenny and Jason Alexander". Joan Rivers previously had a small cameo in Shrek 2; Dee Bradley Baker is a voice actor with many animation credits, notably as Perry the Platypus in Disney's Phineas and Ferb; Tom Kenny is best known as the voice of Spongebob Squarepants, but also recently voiced Rabbit in Disney's 2011 Winnie the Pooh film; Jason Alexander, perhaps most recognisable as suicidal Earl in the Friends episode The One Where Rosita Dies, has also amassed many animation credits to his name, including The Return of Jafar and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Given that this is a Pixar film, John Ratzenberger was to be expected.

Lil' Wayne, primarily a rapper, with few screen-credits to his name, seems the odd one out, but if Pixar has cast him, they presumbaly have faith in his ability, and I have faith in theirs. Still, it seems an odd choice - if this cast information is accurate, that is; we'll see if we can get word one way or the other.

The Good Dinosaur is directed by Bob Peterson and is released on 30th May in the US and 18th July in the UK.

UPDATE: 02/01/2013, 23:00 (GMT) - I emailed Pixar's PR guy Chris Wiggum, inquiring as to the accuracy of this cast list, Chris replied promptly with: "Not accurate." Well, providing this isn't a red herring  to throw us off the track, there you have it.

UPDATED: Watch: Hong Kong Phooey and Marvin the Martian Live-Action/CG Hybrid Test Footage

The latest in the stream of awful CG/live-action mashup movies - following in the critically derided but financially successful spirit of The Smurfs and Yogi Bear - are Hong Kong Phooey and Looney Tunes' Marvin the Martian.

Director Alex Zamm (Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2) posted test-footage from the Hong Kong Phooey film, complete with Eddie Murphy soundalike, out of place animation and toilet jokes! Zamm also posted a 3D test short (Yule Be Sorry) for a, subsequently cancelled, Marvin the Martian film.

The Hong Kong Phooey footage is pretty terrible: Penry/Hong Kong Phooey looks like the CG Scooby Doo from 10 years ago and the humour's severely off-kilter. The shame is that the Marvin footage (testicle jokes and product placement aside) was a lot better - funnier, more cartoony and closer to the original character - and that's been cancelled! That said, the fact that Zamm's posted the Hong Kong Phooey test too may indicate that that's also been shelved.

Check both tests out above, thanks to Bleeding Cool. UPDATE: 1/1/2013, 03:10 (GMT) - Ah, it seems Bleeding Cool's video has been removed, so check out the two clips, via Alex Zamm's Vimeo channel, here and here. Oh yeah, and Happy New Year, guys! All the best for 2013!

Via Cartoon Brew.

Peter Jackson to Shoot Tintin 2 Mid-Hobbit, for 2015 Release

Bleeding Cool (via RTBF) has some interesting new details about Tintin 2 - mainly, when we can expect to see it. During his press tour for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (which is freaking great by the way!), Peter Jackson - who co-produced the first Tintin movie, and is directing the second - fielded a couple of questions about the hotly anticipated sequel.

Jackson's subsequent two Hobbit films will be released around this time next year and then mid-2014 respectively, so one might worry that the sequel to Steven Spielberg's 2011 adaptation of Hergé's intrepid reporter might be a while off. But worry no longer, Jackson is meeting with scribe Anthony Horowitz "next week", and will set aside some time during The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug's post-production to shoot the mo-cap for the film, with a view towards a 2015 release.

Exciting news indeed, and this hopefully means that the follow-up to 2011's Best Animated Film A113Animation Award winner isn't too far off.

The question on everybody's mind though: Will The Adventures of Tintin 2 be 3 hours long?

Pete Docter's Mind Film Apparently Has a Title: The Inside Out

Pixar's upcoming slate is really taking shape, we have a lot of exciting projects; some sequels, some originals, some new directors. One thing we're a little short of though is titles. Up co-director Bob Peterson's directorial debut only recently got its title and some plot points, The Good Dinosaur, we know very little about films beyond that though. Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich is bring us an, untitled, film about the Mexican holiday, Día de los Muertos, first-time feature director Teddy Newton will be bringing us a film, and Andrew Stanton returns to animation with, the tentatively titled, Finding Nemo 2. Sandwiched inbetween all that though, on 19th June, 2015, is the new film from Monsters, Inc. and Up director Pete Docter, which now has a title.

Robert Zemeckis Updates Us On Roger Rabbit Sequel

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is fantastic. There are very few who would argue with that statement. There should be a Roger Rabbit sequel. I'd hazard a guess that there aren't all too many people who would argue with that either, and director Robert Zemeckis clearly wouldn't.

Disney Cuts Henry Selick's Next Film

We've heard the exciting news for a while now, that The Nightmare Before Christmas director Henry Selick had entered into a collaboration with Disney and Pixar. The studio formed as a result of this was then called Cinderbiter Productions.

We didn't hear anything much for a while, before recently hearing that Cinderbiter - now retitled ShadeMaker Productions - and Selick's first film for Disney would be called, tentatively, Shademaker, after the studio. The stop-motion film - which is supposedly, following in the vein of Selick's other films, like Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline, a scary one - was due for a 4th October, 2013 release date. However, Variety reports that Disney had concerns that the film wouldn't meet its release date, so the Mouse House pulled the plug.

Selick is expected to continue the film elsewhere (Laika maybe? After the success of their previous collaboration with Selick, Coraline), and still expected to progress with another film for Disney, an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. However, the fact that Disney wouldn't postpone the release date (something they frequently do for Pixar films) suggests they weren't happy with Shademaker, so it's up in the air at the moment where Selick stands on The Graveyard Book - although Gaiman, having previously worked with Selick in adapting his original book of Coraline for Laika, would likely want to collaborate with him again.

Sad news, definitely, Henry Selick's a very talented film-maker, and here's hoping Shademaker finds a home and this doesn't spoil his relationship with Disney.

Via Bleeding Cool.

Randy Newman Set to Score Monsters University

I missed this story until now, but Bleeding Cool reported about a month ago, at the premiere of Brave, that Randy Newman is set to score the Monsters, Inc. prequel, Monsters University!

Newman scored the 2001 original, and it was a toss up in speculation as to whether he or another composer would score the 2013 prequel. Newman scored the original two Toy Story films, and its threequel, yet, after scoring Cars, fellow Pixar favourite Michael Giacchino scored its sequel Cars 2 - to give it a different feel. Aside from Toy Story 3, it's been a while since Newman scored a Pixar film, and I can't wait to see what he does with the score!

When interviewed at the Brave (scored by Pixar newcomer Patrick Doyle) premiere, Newman even sang a brief snippet from the soundtrack that he hasn't started on yet!

Monsters University opens on 21st June, 2013 in the US and 12th July that same year here in the UK!

Via Pixar Corner's Twitter.


Elsewhere in Pixar follow-up news, have you heard the reports about Finding Nemo 2 yet?

John Lasseter Talks About The Good Dinosaur and Pete Docter's Mind Film

Pixar and Disney Animation Chief Creative Officer, Executive Producer and general head honcho, John Lasseter, on a recent promotional tour for Pixar's next film, Brave, spoke about the studio's slate of films beyond that - specifically, Bob Peterson's The Good Dinosaur and Pete Docter's Untitled Pixar Movie That Takes You Inside the Mind!

Normally I would post small excerpts from the quote's here, to give you a flavour of what he's saying, but as this is John Lasseter, and as what he says is so interesting - it's our first real flavour of plot and inspiration for the films - I'm going to post the entirety of John's comments below:

Read what Lasseter said on Up co-director Bob Peterson's directorial debut (and my most anticipated Pixar film) The Good Dinosaur, after the jump break!